


can we get back to politics? (please)

by relmsey



Category: The London Life (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Awkward Crush, F/M, Politics, Regency
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-10-20
Packaged: 2018-08-23 16:06:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8333869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/relmsey/pseuds/relmsey
Summary: The last thing that Lady Natalie expected to be doing that morning was discussing politics with the Duke of Leighton.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be crack and it turned out weirdly serious. i have no idea whether this nick actually sounds like nick does but C'EST LA VIE

'His Grace, the Duke of Leighton,' said the butler, and Natalie turned around in surprise to look at the front door, having not expected anyone to arrive whilst she was repotting the fern in the hallway.

'I - oh your Grace,' she said, curtseying as politely as she could whilst holding a trowel in one hand and a sheaf of papers on modern planting techniques the other. 'I apologise, I did not know you were to call today. Daphne is--' and here she glanced at the grandfather clock at the foot of the stairs and paused, 'she is not yet returned from calling on a friend, which is most unlike her.' 

He nodded, frowning slightly. 'I see. If that is the case, then I shall take my leave. My apologies for disturbing you, Lady Natalie.'

'Oh no, please,' she said, setting her things down on the low table beside her, 'I am sure she will be back shortly. Won't you take some tea?'

She regretted her words almost as soon as they left her mouth, for what on Earth should she talk to the Duke of Leighton about? She could hope that he would refuse, but it was unlikely. The duke, she thought, would be unlikely to do anything that could be perceived as rude, particularly in the hallway of the Duke of Beaumont's house. Those sorts of things were simply Not Done. She could see him pause, momentarily, only because she had been looking for it.

'That would be kind of you,' he said, and though it was only a few words she felt that she took rather more meaning from them. "That would be kind of you" was certainly not "yes I would like to", but she smiled at him all the same, and gestured for him to follow her into the morning room. 

'Your sister suggested that I call,' he said, his eyes flicking almost imperceptibly to the clock on the mantle as he took a seat. Natalie smiled again politely as she took her own seat.

'Yes, I am sure she shall be back shortly.'

Just as Natalie was about to ring for tea, a maid appeared with a tray - clearly the butler had told them that they would require tea and she was thankful, for it prevented them from sitting in silence until it arrived. The maid retreated to stand quietly by the door and Natalie poured the drinks. She felt something of a fraud, sitting in her sister's morning room and serving tea as if she knew what she were doing, but it was not as if she could have turned the man away. Particularly if her sister was expecting him. Natalie supposed that she should just be grateful that he had arrived  _before_ the repotting began, and that she did not have soil on her sleeves. 

They quickly exhausted their stock of small talk, enquiring after each other's families and commenting idly on the weather and its appropriateness for riding. Natalie, who could never let uncomfortable silence pass, felt it her duty to keep the conversation moving.

'Daphne tells me that you take an active interest in Parliament?' she hazarded, trying to find a subject in which they would have at least a little common ground. Natalie was not overly interested in politics, but staying at Beaumont House - in particular staying with Phillip, who fondly indulged her curiosity much like her parents had - had exposed her to it far more than she had been in Wiltshire and she found herself quite passionate about some aspects of it. It would, hopefully, be a more interesting subject to him. 'I should be most interested in your opinions on the Slave Trade Felony Act.'

He blinked a little, his lips thinning a little as he turned back to his tea.

'I am not sure that it is entirely appropriate to--'

'Oh come now,' Natalie said, smiling. 'If you cannot make your case to me, how do you expect to make it to your peers?'

She must, she thought, have caught him on a particularly good day, for his expression turned from stern to something rather like contemplation.

'It is,' he said slowly, 'a most important piece of legislation. Of law,' he said, as if he were trying to make it easier for her to understand. She resisted the urge to smile, and nodded encouragingly. 'Brougham is an exceedingly clever man, and we would do well to listen to him.'

She nodded again. 'I have heard of him. He wrote some interesting papers for the Royal Society, though I confess I did not take him for such a humanitarian.'

'He is not as good a scientist as he would have others believe,' the duke said, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly, 'but his passion for abolition is almost second to none.'

And so it was when Daphne arrived ten minutes later, one of the horses on her carriage having thrown a shoe somewhere around Picadilly, she found her friend engaged in a conversation with her sister that she would have thought more likely to have been held with her husband.

'Pardon me if I am interrupting,' she said, a touch drily but smiling at the two of them as she entered the morning room. They both stood, Nick as inscrutable as ever and Natalie smiling at her with what looked like a most puzzling combination of relief and disappointment.

How odd. Something to ask her about later, perhaps.


End file.
